N. Korea continues short-range missile launches for 3rd day - South

North Korea has fired two short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan on Monday, South Korean Defense Ministry reports. It’s the third day in a row of such launches, despite calls from the UN to cease them.

"Dozens of Spike missiles and their launchers have recently
been deployed on Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands," an
official for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. "They can
destroy [North Korea's] underground facilities and can pursue and
strike moving targets."

The satellite-guided Spike missile has a range of about 20km
(12.4 miles) and weighs 70kg (154lbs), according to military
officials.

Yeonpyeong is situated just 11km (6.8 miles) from North Korean
shores.

South Korea moved to place the Israeli missiles after Seoul
confirmed that North Korea on Saturday had launched three
short-range guided missiles off its east coast into the Sea of
Japan. Two launches were fired on Saturday morning and another one
in the afternoon, the Yonhap news agency
reported.

On Sunday North Korea
launched another short-range missile.

On the third day of the
launches North Korea announced that the country is conducting
scheduled military drills. The missile launches are part of the
exercises, said a Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report, citing
an official of Pyongyang’s body for cross-border
affairs.

Media reports speculated that the projectiles were likely
shore-based anti-ship KN-2 Toksa missiles, North Korea’s version of
the Soviet-made OTR-21 Tochka tactical ballistic missile, which
Pyongyang is believed to have reverse-engineered.

"The missiles traveled about 120 km and in the North Korean
arsenal, only the modified KN-02 or multiple rocket launchers of
300 mm or larger in caliber can go that far," a source in the
South Korean government said.

While the latest test launch
only involves short-range missiles, it poses security threats to
the region and should be"stopped immediately,”said the Seoul ministry that is charged with
cross-border affairs.

"We find it deplorable that the North does not stop
provocative actions such as the launch of guided missiles
yesterday," said Unification Ministry spokesman Kim
Hyung-Seok.

"We call on the North to take responsible actions for our
sake and for the sake of the international community."

South Korea also urged the North to respond to its calls for
talks about the future of the joint Kaesong industrial complex,
which was put on ice amid the latest confrontation. Opened in 2004,
it worked with the South’s investments and Northern land and labor
in a rare example of cooperation between the rival states.

"It is very regrettable that the North denigrates our offer
for talks... and shifts blame for the suspension of the Kaesong
complex to us," Kim said.

Pyongyang banned South Korean staff from the complex and called
off its workers as the US and South launched massive war drills, a
move which North considered hostile. Prior to the closure some
politicians in South and Korea observers said Kaesong’s continued
operation showed that the North is not prepared to lose its
revenues and so will not go beyond empty threats in the
stand-off.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over the
missile launches and urged Pyongyang to return to talks on the
nuclear issue in the six-party format.

"We are very concerned about North Korea's provocative
actions," Ban told reporters in Moscow on the
weekend. "I hope that North Korea will refrain from any
further such actions.”

"It is time for them to resume dialogue and lower the
tensions. The United Nations is willing to help," he
added.

The UN Secretary General said hopes that Russia "will
continue to use their contacts to reduce tensions and intensify the
dialogue with North Korea."

He said that he had discussed this subject matter in a meeting
on Friday in Sochi with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, the US State Department Saturday called on the North
to exercise restraint, without specifically mentioning the
launches.

The US stations around 28,500 troops in South Korea, a
carry-over from the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an
armistice, not a peace treaty. The armistice was signed by the
US-led UN troops, by the Chinese volunteer army which came to help
the North, and by Pyongyang, but not by Seoul.

The Korean Peninsula is emerging from the latest episode of
tensions, which began February 12, 2013, when Pyongyang announced
it had conducted an underground nuclear test, its third in seven
years.

The test was met with harsh international condemnation and a new
round of sanctions by the UN Security Council.

South Korea and the US responded with large scale naval
maneuvers, which Pyongyang called a provocation and threatened to
use its nuclear arsenal if attacked.